


Candle in the Wind

by noirsparker



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Dad's having a bad time, RWBY V8:C5 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27912532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noirsparker/pseuds/noirsparker
Summary: Ruby's face on the TV was a ray of hope, even if the things she was saying were dismal. But nothing seems to go as planned these days, and she's gone before Tai can even process her sudden appearance.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	Candle in the Wind

**Author's Note:**

> I am once again writing angst while sleep deprived.  
> I can't stop thinking about Taiyang, about how he must have felt during all of this. CRWBY really chose violence against dads this week...

**"My name is Ruby Rose. I'm a huntress."**

If seeing her face hadn't brought tears to Taiyang's eyes, those words did. She looked so different- so grown up. She sounded so serious. She was _alive_. He'd known, on some level, that she was okay. He'd told himself time and again that she had to be, that Qrow would have found some way, against all odds, to tell him if something had happened, but... He hadn't heard from either of his girls since they'd left home, and whether they'd written or not he had no way of knowing. Haven was an awfully long way away, Atlas even further. The way things were these days, the people of Patch were lucky if mail came through from central Vale, let alone the other Kingdoms. At least this was solid proof that she was okay. Relief overcame him like a wave, and pride at how far she'd come, how much she'd clearly grown, followed.

It didn't last long.

The realisation that the message was pre-recorded hit him fast and deep. The relief ballooning in him burst in a split second. She'd been alive when she recorded this, but what if she wasn't now? Had she recorded it with the expectation that she'd die attempting to get it broadcast? All huntsmen had to face that kind of worst-case scenario at some point, but Ruby was... _is_ a kid. Tai had come to terms with her growing faster than he was ready for her to a while ago- Yang, too- but a seventeen year old, doing something like this? And the things she was saying... He knew them already, of course. He'd been a part of the inner circle for years, this news came as no shock to him, but if she was lifting the veil of secrecy on it all- things were worse than he thought they ever could be. Rage filled him next, at Salem for doing this, but also at Ironwood. Where was he? Whst kind of 'leader' makes a seventeen year old, _his_ seventeen year old, do this kind of thing? Shouldn't that be his job?

**"But, sadly, General Ironwood can no longer be trusted."** _Oh, James. What have you done?_

Ruby's next words were enough to take over the rage, and replace it with ice cold fear.

**"We didn't have time to prepare for Salem, but now you do."**

It sounded like.... Like she'd already accepted her fate. The same fate as had befallen Summer, all those years ago. He wouldn't lose another family member to Salem. He couldn't.

The broadcast ended. Mid-sentence.

"No! No come back!" Ice still flowed through his veins, the hairs on the back of his neck standing at alert, but he didn't care about the fear anymore. Not right now. The first time he'd seen Ruby in more than a year, and that connection to her was gone as quickly as it had come through, leaving him in the dark again. Cut off from his only solid evidence that his youngest daughter was alive. Perhaps he could have clung to that if her message had finished, let it spark some of the hope he'd been sorely lacking recently, but now... Had it ended because something was wrong? Had the General cut it off, or something happened to Ruby?

Taiyang felt depression settle over him like a thick fog. He had no idea if Yang was alive, if she'd ever made it to Raven or gone on to find Ruby. If she had, he couldn't imagine her making Ruby record that message alone. They'd always had each other's backs- that's what had given him the strength to go on since Yang had left. That strength was beginning to fade. With no sign of Yang or Qrow and such a dire message from Ruby... She'd seemed so hopeful, if not for her chances then for theirs- she always managed that, even when her message had all the marks of a final goodbye- but if things were as bad as she said they were, and he knew she wouldn't have put it out if they weren't, then hope was a candle in the wind now.

He'd let her sign up for this. Let both of them leave. If Salem took his girls from him, if all he had left vanished at her hands...

Who could he blame but himself?


End file.
